D.
R. KOUKAL
Education
Ph.D.
in Philosophy (December 1999)
Master
of Arts in Philosophy (December 1997)
Dissertation: The
Question of Expression:
Toward a Phenomenological Rhetoric
Shimer College
Waukegan, IL
Bachelor
of Asts in General Studies with Distinction (May 1990)
Valedictorian
Senior
thesis: A Philosophy of
Dialogue
Areas
of Specialization
Phenomenology
(Husserl,
Heidegger,
Merleau-Ponty)
Phenomenological method
Phenomenologies
of expression, media,
embodiment and lived space
Political and Social
Philosophy (Contract
Theory and Marxism)
Areas of Competence
History of Philosophy
Ethics
Applied Ethics
(Business and Biomedical)
Introductory Logic
Professional
Experience
Fall
2000-present
University of
Detroit
Mercy (Detroit, MI)
Chair (Fall 2012 - present)
Professor of Philosophy (Fall 2011 - present)
Associate Professor of Philosophy (Fall 2004 - Fall 2011)
Director, The Honors Program at UDM (Fall 2001 - 2011)
Assistant Professor of Philosophy (Fall 2000 - Fall 2004)
Regular Courses:
Ethics
Existentialism
Introduction to Logic
Introduction to Philosophy
Person and Society
Phenomenology and Architecture
Social and Political Philosophy
Topics in Critcial Thinking: Media
Topics in Philosophy Courses:
Appearance and Reality
Contemporary Continental
Philosophy
Friendship
The Good Life
Locke and Mill
Directed Readings:
Dwelling: Heidegger and
Norberg-Schulz
Existentialism
Heidegger: Being and Time
Husserl
Nietzsche
Phenomenology
Phenomenology of Place
Postmodernism
1998-2000
Rollins College
(Winter Park, FL)
Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Adjunct Instructor
Courses:
Business Ethics
Ethics
Introduction to Philosophy
Philosophy of Education
Topics in Ethics (Friendship)
1998-1999
Courses:
Introduction to Philosophy
1997-1998
Courses:
Philosophy I
1996-1997
Courses:
Biomedical Ethics
1995-1996
Courses:
Business Ethics
1993-1997
Duquesne
University (Pittsburgh, PA)
Adjunct Instructor, Teaching Assistant, Graduate Assistant
Courses:
Basic Philosophical
Questions
Introductory Logic
Philosophy of Sexuality
Professional Publications
"Looking at the Other at Abu Ghraib"
Contribution
to The
Political Between: Media/Images/Writing.
Edited by Terri J. Hennings; series editor Hugh J. Silverman.
Continuum Press, New York, London (forthcoming)
"Here I Stand: Mediated Bodies in
Dissent"
Media Tropes 2/2
(2010)
"Torture"
International Journal of
Applied Philosophy
23/2 (2009)
"Aude Describere!"
PhaenEx
3/2 (Fall/Winter 2008)
"Back to the Things Themselves!
(again)"
Co-authored with Astrida Neimanis of The London School of Economics. PhaenEx
3/2 (Fall/Winter 2008)
"The Necessity of Communicating
Phenomenological Insights--and its Difficulties"
Contribution to Meaning and
Language: Phenomenological Perspectives.
Phaenomenologica Series, Volume 187 (Springer Academic Publishing,
2008)
"The Mortal God to
Which We Owe Our Peace
and Defense"
Contribution to Philosophical
Perpectives on the War on Terrorism.
Edited by Gail M. Presbey. Editions
Rodopi, 2007
"Detroit
Detritus"
Dichotomy: A Student
Publication of the University of Detroit Mercy School of Architecture
16 (Fall 2006)
"Speaking
to the World Through Husserl and Merleau-Ponty"
Contribution to Issues in
Interpretation Theory. Edited
by Pol Vandevelde. Marquette University Press, 2006
"Cellular
Irruptions"
Glimpse: The Journal of
the Society for Phenomenology and Media
5/1 (Fall 2004)
"9/11/01
and the Pull of History"
Glimpse: The Journal of
the Society for Phenomenology and Media
4/1 (Fall 2003)
"Dwelling
in the Classroom: A Phenomenology of Distance Learning"
The Journal of Teaching in
Marriage and Family: Innovations in Family Science Education
Volume 2, Issue 1 (July 2002)
Primary
author, with Libby Balter Blume of University of Detroit Mercy and
Thomas W. Blume of Oakland University
"The
Question Concerning Virtual Community"
Glimpse: The Journal of
the Society for Phenomenology and Media
3/1 (Fall 2001)
"Sartre/Réage"
Mosaic: A Journal for the
Interdisciplinary Study of Literature (September
2001)
"The
Rhetorical Impulse in Husserl's Phenomenology"
Continental Philosophy
Review (formerly Man
and World) 34/1 (March 2001)
"Merleau-Ponty's
Reform of Saussure: Linguistic Innovation and the Practice of
Phenomenology"
Southern Journal of Philosophy 38/4
(December 2000)
"Discrete
Environments: Those Which Do Not Dwell"
International Studies in
Philosophy 28/2 (1996)
Book Reviews
Justifying
Our Existence: An Essay in Applied Phenomenology.
By Graeme Nicholson. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
Review of Metaphyscis
(forthcoming)
"All
that is solid melts into air..." Essay review of The
Last Professors: The Corporate University and the Fate of the Humanities.
By Frank Donoghue. Bronx: Fordham University Press, 2008.
Technology and Culture
(January 2010)
Encyclopedia
of Science, Technology, and Ethics.
Edited by Carl Mitcham. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2005.
Technology and Culture
(July 2007)
Living
in the Labyrinth of Technology.
By Willem H. Vanderburg. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.
Technology and Culture
(October 2006)
American
Philosophy of Technology: The Empirical Turn.
Edited by Hans Achterhuis. Translated by Robert P. Crease. Bloomington
and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2001.
Technology and Culture
(January 2003)
Bodies
in Technology. By Don Ihde.
Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2002.
Technology and Culture
(October 2002)
The
Fundamental Concepts of Metaphysics: World, Finitude, Solitude.
By Martin Heidegger. Translated by William McNeill and Nicholas Walker.
Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1995.
The Review of Metaphysics
(March 2002)
Technology
and the Good Life? Edited by
Eric Higgs, Andrew Light, and David Strong. University of Chicago
Press, 2000 and Holding On to
Reality: The Nature of Information at the Turn of the Millenium.
By Albert Borgmann. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999.
Technology and Culture
(October 2001)
The
Robot in the Garden: Telerobotics and Telepistemology in the Age of the
Internet. Edited by Ken
Goldberg. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000.
Technology and Culture
(July 2001)
Other
Publications
"A Little Corner of Shimer"
Symposium: A Publication of Shimer College (Summer 2012)
"The Dishonesty of 'Cores Lite': The Battle for a Truly Common Core"
Conversations on Jesuit
Higher Education 39 (Spring 2011)
"Logic
Will Save Our Students From the Media"
Conversations on Jesuit
Higher Education 32 (Fall 2007)
Professional
Presentations
"Space and Embodiment: A Collaborative Phenomenological Workshop"
Facilitated at the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory
and Culture, University of Waterloo (Waterloo, Canada), June 1, 2012
"Body (Subject) Interruptus: A Phenomenology of Unwanted Pregnancy"
Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory
and Culture, Saint Thomas University and the University of New Brunswick (Fredricton, Canada), May 30-June 4, 2011
"Repsonse to Jeremy Anderson's 'Suicide Terrorism and the Hobbesian Sovereign'"
Presented at the Pacific Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (San Diego, CA), April 23, 2011
"A
Forgotten Front of the Core Wars: The Battle for a Truly Common
Core"
Presented to the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts &
Letters at
Saginaw Valley State University (Saginaw, MI), March 11, 2011
"Stolen
Space: The Perverse Architecture of Torture"
Presented at "Flesh and Space: Intertwining Merleau-Ponty and
Architecture," Mississippi State University (Starkville, MS), September
9, 2009
"Rubbish"
Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory
and Culture, Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada), May 26-30, 2009
"The Exegetical
Attitude"
Presented to the inaugural meeting of the Interdisciplinary Coalition
of North American Phenomenologists, Romapo College (Mahwah, NJ), May 8,
2009
"Stranger in the
House: A Report on
Philosophy in a Jesuit University"
Presented at a summit on The Role of Philosophy in Jesuit Higher
Education, Seattle University (Seattle, WA), April 17, 2009
"Mediated Bodies in
Dissent"
Presented to the Society for Phenomenology and Media, (Arlington, VA),
February 26, 2009
"Vox Phenomenologica"
Presented to the Society for Phenomenology and the Human Sciences,
Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), October 17, 2008
"Torture"
Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory
and Culture, University of Saskatchewan (Saskatoon, Canada), May 29-31,
2007
"The Necessity of
Communicating
Phenomenological Insights--and its Difficulties"
Presented at the Husserl-Archives, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
(Leuven, Belgium), November 24, 2006
"Sartre
and Sontag on the Torture of Images"
Presented to the Thirtieth Anniversary Conference of the International
Association for Philosophy and Literature, Albert-Ludwigs Universitat
(Freiburg, Germany), June 5-10, 2006
"Here
I Stand: Spaces and Bodies in Political Dissent"
Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory
and Culture, York University (Toronto, Canada), May 27-29, 2006
"Photography,
Media and Ontological Assault"
Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory
and Culture, University of Western Ontario (London, Canada), May 28-30,
2005
"Dwelling
in the Classroom/Learning at a Distance: A Heideggerian Investigation
of Distance Learning"
Presented to the Seventh Annual Conference of the Society for
Phenomenology and Media, Western Oregon University (Monmouth, OR), May
12-14, 2005
"Looking
at the Other at Abu Ghraib"
Presented to the Concerned Philosophers for Peace at the American
Philosophical Association Eastern Division Meeting (Boston, MA),
December 27, 2004
"Phenomenology
is Not Just Intuition But Also Expression"
Presented to the Twenty-Ninth Annual Meeting of the International
Merleau-Ponty Circle: "Expression, Language, Art," Muhlenberg College
(Allentown, PA), September 30-October 2, 2004
"Incredulity,
Stupefaction, 9/11"
Presented to the Sixth Annual Conference of the Society for
Phenomenology and Media, Brigham Young University (Provo, UT), May 5-8,
2004
"Locke
contra Capital!"
Presented to the Fourteenth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation and
Culture Conference, Binghamton University (Binghamton, NY), April
16-17, 2004
"Master
of All and Subject to None"
Presented to a conference on "Empire and Imperial Cultures," California
State University-Stanislaus (Turlock, CA), February 27-28, 2004
"The
Mortal God to Which We Owe Our Peace and Defense"
Presented at the Sixteenth Annual Conference of the Concerned
Philosophers for Peace, Pacific University (Forest Grove, Oregon),
October 23-26, 2003
"Phenomenology,
Community, and the Problem of the Mobility of Meaning"
Presented to the Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory
and Culture, Dalhousie University and University of King's College
(Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), May 28-29, 2003
"Cellular
Irruptions"
Presented to the Fifth Annual Conference of the Society for
Phenomenology and Media, Arcada Polytechnic (Helsinki, Finland), May
14-17, 2003
"The
Death of Lockeanism and the Rise of Global Leviathanism"
Presented to the Thirteenth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation and
Culture Conference, Binghamton University (Binghamton, NY), April
11-12, 2003
"Words
and Things: The Problem of Constituting Phenomenological Meaning"
Presented by invitation to the Marquette University Seminar on
Phenomenology and Hermeneutics (Milwaukee, WI), March 27, 2003
"The
War on 'Terrorism' and Memory: The Violence of the Hyperreal"
Presented to the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Concerned
Philosophers for Peace, Walsh University (North Canton, OH), October
24-27, 2002
"Trash
Talk: A Phenomenological Study of Litter (and Detroit)"
Presented to the Sixth Annual Meeting of the International Association
for Environmental Philosophy, Loyola University (Chicago, IL), October
12-14, 2002
"Dwelling
in the Classroom: An Outline for a Heideggerian Pedagogy"
Presented to the Twelfth Annual Philosophy, Interpretation and Culture
Conference, Binghamton University (Binghamton, NY), April 19-20, 2002
"9/11/01
and the Pull of History"
Presented to the Fourth Annual Conference of the Society for
Phenomenology and Media, Universidad Nacional Autonoma (Puebla,
Mexico), February 21-24, 2002
"Why
Phenomenologists Cannot Describe Essences"
Presented to the American Philosophical Association, Eastern Division
Meeting (Atlanta, GA). Colloquium on "Phenomenological Reflection and
Imagination," December 30, 2001
"Post-war
Assessments: Merleau-Ponty and Baudrillard"
Presented to the Twenty-Sixth Annual Meeting of the International
Merleau-Ponty Circle: "The Political Implications of Merleau-Ponty's
Philosophy," University of North Carolina (Asheville, NC), September
20-22, 2001
"What
is the State of Dwelling in the Age of the Internet?"
Presented to the Third Annual Conference of the Society for
Phenomenology and Media, National University (La Jolla, CA), February
22-24, 2001
"Dissolution
and the New World Order"
Presented at "Borders and Frontiers: An Interdisciplinary Graduate
Student Conference," Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), November 23,
1996
"Looking
Through the Keyhole with Jean-Paul Sartre: The Ontology of Voyeurism"
Presented at the Twentieth Anniversary Conference
of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature, George Mason University (Fairfax, VA), May 8-11, 1996
"Breaching
the Walls from the Inside: Merleau-Ponty on Expressive Intellectual
Discourse"
Presented at the Sixth annual Philosophy Interpretation Culture
Conference "Private Scholars, Public Intellectuals: Institutional
Constraints and Ethical Political Responsibilities," Binghamton
University (Binghamton, NY), April 19, 1996
"Rescuing
the Poets: Merleau-Ponty and a Call for an Academic Poetics"
Presented at "What’s the Difference? Communities and
Communication in Transition," Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA),
December 2, 1995
"But
How is the Silence Filled? The Persistent Gap Between parole
and langue
in Merleau-Ponty"
Presented at the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Society for
Phenomenological and Existential Philosophy, DePaul University
(Chicago, IL), October 12-14, 1995
"The
Unfulfilled Silence: The Problem of Linguistic Innovation in
Merleau-Ponty"
Presented at the Twentieth Annual International Conference of the
Merleau-Ponty Circle "Merleau-Ponty, Language, and Contemporary
Thought," Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), September 21-23, 1995
"Warriors/Shopkeepers/Voyeurs"
Presented at "Kant’s Legacy: Idealism, Romanticism,
Post-Modernity," DePaul University (Chicago, IL), May 18-20, 1995
"Discrete
Environments: Those Which Do Not Dwell"
Presented at the Philosophy Interpretation Culture Conference "World,
Community, Place," State University of New York (Binghamton, NY), April
29-30, 1995
"Nietzsche:
Sarcasm as Method"
Presented at the Duquesne Graduate Students in Philosophy Spring
Colloquium, Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), February 17, 1995
"Kant
in Bosnia"
Presented at "Global (Inter)Sections: Gender, Race, and Class in
(Multi)Cultural texts," Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), November
12, 1994
"Satire,
Misogyny, Moral Extremes, the Idea of Violence, and Conclusive
Narrative in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks"
Presented at the NEH Conference "Gender Politics in 20th Century
Multicultural Texts," Duquesne University (Pittsburgh, PA), November
13, 1993
Other
Professional Activities
Member-at-Large of the Executive Committee
Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and
Culture, Spring 2010-present
Advisory Board
Media Tropes, 2008-present
Panel
Co-Organizer
"Back to the Things Themselves! A Practicum on Phenomenological
Description"
Society for Existential and Phenomenological Theory and
Culture, 2007-present
Book Reviewer
Technology and Culture,
July 2001-present
Co-Editor
(with Astrida Neimanis of the London School of Economics)
Special topics issue of PhaenEx
(Back to the Things Themselves: Edges and the In-between), 3/2
(Fall/Winter 2008)
Program Co-Organizer
"9/11:
Five Years & Beyond"
A semester-long series of memorials, lectures, films,
discussion panels, speak-outs and performances
University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), Fall 2006
Member
of Editorial Board
Glimpse: The Journal of
the Society for Phenomenology and Media,
May 2003-February 2006
Secretary-Treasurer
Society for Phenomenology and Media, February 2002-February 2006
Manuscript
Referee
Wadsworth Publishing Company, Spring 1999
Conference
Co-Coordinator
Interdisciplinary Conference: "What’s the Difference?
Communities and Communication in Transition"
Duquesne University
(Pittsburgh, PA), December 2, 1995
Public Lectures
"Some
Remarks on Fear and Politics"
Presented to the Muslim Student
Organization and the Hispanic-American Student Association at the
University of Detroit Mercy, November 16, 2010
"Coming Home Again?"
Shimer College Keynote Address (Chicago, IL),
October
17,
2009
"Trash Talk: A Phenomenology of Litter (and Detroit)"
Presented to the College of Liberal Arts and Education Faculty
Development Colloquium, University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI),
January 29, 2004
"Pedagogy, Technology, Authenticity"
Presented at Shimer College
(Waukegan, IL), March 28, 2003
"Dwelling in the classroom/learning at a distance: a Heideggerian
investigation of distance learning"
Presented to the
College of Liberal Arts Faculty Development Colloquium, University of
Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), February 8, 2001
"Locke and the Social Theory that Dares Not Speak Its Name"
Presented
to the University Club (Winter Park, FL), March 14, 2000
"John Locke, the Spirit of ’76, and the Divine Right of the
Corporation"
Presented to the Friends of the Volusia County Library
lecture series (Daytona Beach, FL), May 13, 1999
Awards and Honors
Recipient
of Faculty Achievement Award
University of Detroit Mercy (Detroit, MI), October 2004
Recipient of Most Distinguished Professor Award
Rollins
College (Winter Park, FL), 1999-2000
Professional
Memberships
American Philosophical
Association
Canadian Society for
Continental Philosophy
International
Merleau-Ponty Circle
International
Association for Philosophy and Literature
Society for
Existential
and Phenomenological Theory and Culture
Society for
Phenomenology
and Existential Philosophy